Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Computing and Information Technology Sciences

Enhancing the Journalist’s Customer Experience in the Saudi Entertainment Industry: A Framework to Evaluate and Improve Digital Media Portals

Waad Alnejaimy — 2024-01-21

This study addresses journalists’ needs in the Saudi entertainment industry. It suggests ways to automate journalists’ regular practices in the entertainment industry by analyzing their needs. A mixed-method study was conducted following explanatory sequential design. First, we published a 26-item questionnaire to journalists and media agencies to obtain their insights regarding the portal using two channels: Emails and WhatsApp. This phase was undertaken to measure (n=988) journalists' user experience on Virtual Media Center (VMC), then discuss points of development with the public relation team through the interviews. A customized version of the user experience questionnaire was crafted to measure a 12 usability scales. This phase was followed by a series of semi-structured interviews. Results indicate that VMC demonstrates a high level of hedonic and classic quality. Qualitative analysis indicates that the most important overarching theme for the VMC portal is ease of use. Virtual media centers portals have to be very easy and convenient to use for it to be the hub of information and a sustainable reference for journalists and media agents. These portals have potential to replace and automate all practices of the media center if it is advertised in advance and constantly evaluated to allow for constant improvement.

Agile Recommendation System for Traditional Software Development Teams

Abdullah Algarni — 2024-01-21

With the increasing demand and necessity for web and mobile applications, programmers are developing an increasing number of applications every day, and these applications have a high degree of deliverables. Therefore, developers must follow the highlighted software development processes as a standard practice. Traditional project management systems have shortcomings that must be addressed. While agile software development methodologies are widely used in the software industry, they are significantly more efficient and improve product quality if followed according to agile requirements. Traditional methods are not adaptable to changes and have defined life cycles. However, agile methods are more flexible in responding to changes, communicating with customers, and improving communication and collaboration. In this study, we present a recommendation system that uses a flow diagram to decide the appropriate agile methodology to be applied by teams based on the collected data after ensuring that the team is eligible for a change to agile. In addition, we presented a mobile application implemented to support the decision tree and project descriptions in which the tool was used. This leads to the greatest benefits from an agile methodology based on the business environment and customer requirements to improve the software industry in terms of cost, time, and other success factors.

Eyesight Tests and Lazy Eye Exercise by using Virtual Reality Mobile Application

Aisha Alsobhi — 2024-01-21

Please Eye and visual disorders are increasingly becoming an issue throughout the world. An estimated 1.3 billion individuals worldwide are blind or have vision impairment. According to a statistical study [1], if researchers focus more on these disorders, the number of people with vision impairment will be much lower. Amblyopia, myopia, and hypermetropia are a few of the eye conditions that relate to blindness and vision problems; they represent prevalent issues that can result in blindness. To better understand eye illness demands, researchers conducted interviews with several ophthalmologists and patients. The results of these interviews revealed that late vision checking is one of the most common factors exacerbating vision difficulties. To aid patients in identifying the signs of eye disorders, this study proposes and develops a virtual reality (VR) mobile application that offers eye vision tests and workouts to improve people's eyesight. The program aims to provide activities to treat lazy eye illness, a distinct eye condition.

Effectiveness of a Virtual Laboratory to Develop the Skills of Identifying Fiber Type Using Chemical Methods

Elham Maqsood — 2024-01-21

Virtual reality is an information technology innovation that creates a 3D simulated environment to assist individuals to easily deal with and visually perceive information. It has been utilized in multiple domains; however, it is noticed that it has rarely been used in the field of clothing and textiles, despite universities’ dire need to provide alternatives to traditional laboratories. This study aims to design a proposed virtual laboratory that provides students with the skill of identifying types of fibers using chemical methods, and eventually measure its effectiveness to keep pace with the swift technological development to employ it in the educational process. The study adopts an experimental-design quantitative approach and uses the achievement test, observation card, and trend scale to verify the study's hypotheses after applying them to a representative sample of textile chemistry students in the department of Fashion and Textiles, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. According to the result of the achievement (T) test of the interconnected samples, the results indicated that there are statistically significant differences between the mean scores of students for the (pre- and post) achievement test in favor of the post-test. Research sample tends to be positively oriented towards learning via the proposed virtual laboratory. The researchers recommend using virtual laboratories to support traditional laboratories in teaching the skill of identifying types of fibers using chemical methods.

Fast and Efficient Multilingual Unified MOOCs Semantic Search Engine (UMSSE)

Ahmad Fajar Tatang — 2024-01-21

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) proliferation has created a demand for effective search engines to help learners identify and enrol in courses that meet their needs. However, building a multilingual unified MOOC search engine that can provide comprehensive search results has been challenging due to the many platforms in different languages and the diversity of available courses. This paper proposed and implemented a model for Unified MOOCs Semantic Search Engine (UMSSE). This UMSSE leveraged a combination of text encoder models and an Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) algorithm to improve the speed and accuracy of search results. The model integrated data from the platform and multiple languages, utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques to understand the meaning of search queries and recommend relevant courses. The performance of the proposed model was evaluated using a dataset of various MOOC course descriptions. The results showed that it outperformed traditional keyword-based search engines regarding performance metrics. Several applied examples further illustrated how the proposed model could improve the speed and effectiveness of MOOCs search and recommend appropriate courses to users.